Creatures Of The Night
by The Legendary Bill Cipher
Summary: The Shattered Goddess encounters a curious cat burglar one starry night. Maeve and Io are now unlocked - have fun guys.


The night air was still, much to Io's liking. The Resistance had stowed away in a keep deep within the forest, where only the crickets and creatures of the night could disturb her. Io's gaze, however, was locked to the night sky.

In the sky over the clearing was, well, herself. The great silver sphere of the moon, fractured into pieces but still shining bright over her domain of darkness. The Darkness had broken her, but they had not snuffed out her light. Not yet.

She jumped slightly when a hand touched her shoulder, turning to find Jenos standing there. He was looking at his friend with concern, before he too looked to the moon above. "Are you well, my friend?" he asked.

"As well as I could be, I suppose," Io replied, resuming her skyward stare. "For someone who lies in a thousand pieces."

"We will find a way to fix this. You shall not remain broken forever. If the Darkness caused this, the Light will undo it." He smiled at her. "And while you possess an earthly form, you are among friends."

Io beamed and nodded. "Thank you, Jenos. I will be alright," she said. "You may tell Valera I just need some time to myself."

"We must ensure your health, my friend. The Magistrate does not hold any punches when it comes to us," Jenos said. "Goodnight."

Io watched him drift back into the keep, then resumed her longing gaze. She was at a risk for being here. She was a goddess, but that didn't make her immune to everything. She held her power, she still held her glow, but her life could still be snuffed, or worse, used against her friends.

There was a shift in the night air. Io's ears twitched as she sensed another presence among the trees. It was more than just a curious woodland animal. With a pang of panic in her chest, she whirled around and summoned her bow.

"Alright," she said in a normal voice, not wishing to alarm her comrades. After all, it was a singular presence - no need to sound the alarm. "Show yourself. Who are you?"

The first thing Io saw was a pair of shimmering blue eyes in the tree branches, staring at her intently like she was prey. Then the shadowy figure who possessed them jumped to the ground with all the sound of a falling leaf. Slowly, they stalked forward.

Io wasn't prepared for the sight before her. Instead of some intimidating target, it was a girl, in her late teens or early twenties from her appearance. She had short pink hair with a single clasp on a lock of hair above her forehead. Her blue eyes were inhuman with their glow and appearance, and she was wearing a longcoat that emanated a powerful energy.

"Who are you?" Io demanded again, not lowering her bow. She could see the curved throwing knives around the girl's belt, each blade's edge faintly glowing pink.

"My name is Maeve," the girl said with a French accent. "Who are you?" She was eyeing the goddess from head to toe, analyzing her.

"Io, goddess of the moon," Io said firmly, standing tall, even though she was hardly taller than the girl herself.

Maeve let out a laugh. "A goddess you say? I believed Jenos, but you?"

"I'm not exactly at my full potential, if you haven't noticed," Io said crossly, jerking her head toward the moon above. Maeve raised a brief, quizzical glance at the moon. "What is your business here?"

"Relax, goddess, relax," Maeve said casually, strolling up to her. "I'm here to see if ze Resistance had any work for me."

"You work with them?" Io frowned.

"Well, I stole zhis-" Maeve adjusted the collar of her longcoat. "From ze Magistrate. I'm more of an enemy of zheir enemy. I don't take sides."

"So you're a mercenary," Io summarized.

"I'd like to zhink of myself more of a professional cat burglar, with claws." Maeve flashed the knives on her belt with a wink. "Zhey need information, or somezhing stolen, zhey come to me...for a price."

Io made an affronted sound, but lowered her bow. "The world is at stake with this conflict, and you want to charge us for your services? If you possess such skills, why not work with us?"

"Like I said, more profit to be had being independent." Maeve placed her hands on her hips and looked skyward. "So...goddess of the moon, huh? What happened?"

Io sighed, her bow vanishing and her ears lowering. "The Darkness shattered me. Some of my shards crashed here on Earth. My loyal followers watched after them, hoping I would take form again. It took the Magistrate trying to steal my shards, and some convincing from my friend Jenos, for me to take form." She turned to Maeve. "To make a stand for my people and those under the Magistrate's heel."

Maeve whistled. "Damn," she said.

"So, what's your story, Maeve?"

Maeve stuffed her hands in her longcoat pockets and her gaze fell to the ground. "Ze usual vagrant story, I suppose. Half-tigron, orphaned. Been knife fighting and stealing since I was little. Made a living out of it, and now I'm here." She huffed. "I don't pick sides because I don't need zhem."

"Tigron, you say? Aren't your people nocturnal?" Io asked.

"I suppose so. I feel more alive at night, like everyzhing in me is charged, but I'm only half-tigron," Maeve said, her gaze ascending to the moon, and her look softened to sympathy. "I'm sorry about what happened to you."

"Jenos has assured me that we will find a way to fix me," Io replied. "I'm just not sure how."

Maeve nodded. "Guess ze Magistrate would have to be stopped first. Who knows, zhey could even have ze answer."

"Which makes my role in this conflict all the more important."

Maeve glanced at her, then looked down. She reached to her belt and gently plucked out one her knives. Gently holding it by the blade, she turned it softly in her hand. It reflected the shattered moon's glow from above.

"Here," she said, offering the knife handle first to Io. Io looked at it in surprise, then at its owner.

"What's this?"

"One of my knives," Maeve explained. "I figured if you aren't at your full power, you could use whatever you can get."

Io smiled at her and took it, admiring the blade in the moonlight. "Thank you, Maeve."

"Yeah, well, I don't just give my blades away. Zhey are my livelihood, you know." She stretched her arms behind her head and then rested her hands on the back of her neck. She glanced briefly at Io, then looked away. "You're welcome."

Io smiled fondly at her, and clipped the blade on her chain belt. Maeve watched her, before looking away quickly again. She refused to show the light pink blush on her cheeks.

"Well," she said to Io. "I should head in and see if zhey need any help. You should head in too."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Maeve flashed a cocky grin at her. "Moping around out here isn't going to fix you any quicker." She turned and headed for the keep, but paused. "Besides, if I were to take a job from you...maybe I'd ask for a discount." Without anything further, she walked into the keep.

Io stood there, the moon goddess actually blushing lightly. She took one more look at her fractured celestial body, and with renewed resolve, followed Maeve inside. Perhaps, not all creatures of darkness were bad.

* * *

Author's Notes

Date of Creation (D.o.C.): 08/16/19

I need to start by saying I don't like Paladins, nor the company behind it. From not fixing bugs that have been there since open beta to jokes called battle passes to physically stealing skins from players, Hi-Rez has turned me off from the game. I played it for a long time, but eventually grew sick of it. Now I just log in for the daily rewards. I spent thirteen dollars on the Founder's Pack during a Steam summer sale and haven't spent a penny on the game since. They're not Epic Games bad, but they're working on it.

That being said, when I did play it, my favorite character was Maeve. Right now, she has the highest level of all my champions. I've loosely been reading the lore of the characters as they've been added, and I've noted Maeve as being more of a neutral. Sure, she's stolen from the Magistrate, but she has no commitments. What she needed was a cause, and I gave her Io. And yes, there is romantic interest.

I made the stuff up about the tigron race – among Hi-Rez's shortcomings is their attempts at weaving this amalgam of characters into a story. We have the characters' lore, the events, and that's it. But, I figured with Maeve's feline nature that the tigrons would have some feline features. Which contrasts nicely with Io, who's portrayed as a fox girl.

Also, I requested Maeve and Io to be added to Paladins, so have fun with the fan fiction guys.

-yours truly,

The Legendary Bill Cipher.

P.S.: The song I listened to while writing this piece was "Keeping the Peace" from Dissidia Final Fantasy.


End file.
